NAB chairman says zero tolerance in eliminating corruption guarantees development

ISLAMABAD: Chairman National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Justice (retd) Javed Iqbal said on Thursday that the institution strongly believed that zero tolerance in eradicating corruption guaranteed hundred percent development.

Chairing a meeting via video link at the NAB headquarters, he said the accountability watchdog was absolutely committed to root out corruption.

The NAB chairman said that fight against corruption was being taken as national duty.

He said that the Quaid Muhammad Ali Jinnah, in his address to the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan, had termed corruption and bribery as one of the biggest curses. “That really is a poison. We must put it down with an iron hand.”

The NAB chairman said that the bureau was established to eradicate corruption in a holistic and integrated manner.

He said that NAB’s operational methodology has set three stages for proceeding in the cases: complaint verification, inquiry, and investigation.

The accountability bureau’s officers and officials need to follow anti-corruption strategy by adopting “Accountability for All” policy against eradication of corruption, said the chairman.

The national and international reputed organizations are appreciating the hard work, commitment, transparency and merit of the NAB officers.

He said that NAB officers should double their efforts in nabbing corrupts elements and recover from them the ‘hard-earned looted money of the innocent citizens of Pakistan’.

Iqbal said that to avoid the possibility of any single NAB officer/official influencing any inquiry, a new concept of a “Combined Investigation Team” (CIT) was introduced.

Under the procedure, two investigation officers, a legal consultant, and a financial expert (under the supervision of Additional Director/Case and concerned Director) work together on cases.

He said that the quality of inquiry and investigations of NAB have improved due to the establishment of NAB’s first Forensic Science Lab (FSL) in Islamabad, which has all facilities of Digital Forensics, Questioned Documents and Fingerprint Analysis.

He said that the NAB has devised Monitoring & Evaluation System (MES) to monitor its performance and of all Regional Bureaus in qualitative and quantitative terms, which has proved very helpful in evaluation of overall performance.

He said that NAB was the only organization with whom China has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to oversee projects under China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CEPC).

NAB has recovered Rs.328 billion since its inception and its overall conviction ratio is about 70% in accountability courts.

He said that NAB hopes that joint efforts of all stakeholders can collaborate to check corruption before happening with the help of all stakeholders.